Summon Forest

Version 0.30: This article may not be up to date for the latest stable release of Crawl.

Summon Forest
Level	5
School1	Summoning
School2	Translocation
Source(s)	Fen Folio Book of the Wilderness
Casting noise	4
Spell noise	10
Power Cap	200

Forcefully intersects a forested plane with this world. It requires open space to succeed. While the spell holds, a spirit of the forest will be called forth, and the trees of the forest will be awakened to deal damage to nearby enemies. Spell power increases the duration, size, and thickness of the intersected plane; as well as the strength of the spirit.

Summon Forest is a level 5 Summoning/Translocation spell that summons a section of forest with a friendly dryad.

Effect

Some nearby rock walls are converted to trees. Additionally, some unoccupied floor tiles will have trees placed on them (in a way that doesn't break connectivity). Sometimes, a pond is created as well. Finally a dryad is summoned, who instantly casts Awaken Forest, berserking all trees summoned by this spell in addition to any trees part of natural dungeon features. The dryad may later summon additional Snaplasher vines, with a constriction melee attack that pulls enemies towards awoken trees.

The spell may only be cast in an open area. At least one square adjacent to the caster must not have any adjacent solid features.

Higher spell power may increase the duration and density of the forest, and will make the dryad stronger.

• Dryad's hit dice is 5 + <power> / 18, randomly rounded. This increases HP, strength of Awaken Forest, and melee accuracy.

• Awakened trees deal HD + 1d(HD) - 1 to 2 * HD - 1 damage/turn (5-9 damage at dryad HD = 5). Both AC and EV protect against this damage.

• The duration of the spell ranges from 12 + <power> / 10 turns to 20 + <power> * 1.5 / 10 turns. The dryad has the same duration.

Awoken trees and snaplasher vines are instantly neutralized the moment the dryad dies, but the spell’s status effect must still run its course before it can be recast.

Strategy

The dryad itself isn't very impressive, but the forest and the snaplasher vines deal good damage to any monster in the area. Especially great in the Swamp, which is filled with trees, but works in any somewhat-open space.

Tips & Tricks

• You can tell your dryad to retreat, in order to keep it alive (and maintain the forests' effect).
• The trees spawned by this spell block line of sight. This can be an interesting option in wide open, dangerous spaces with ranged threats.
• Be careful that the occasional pond spawned by this spell does not block your retreat, or grant increased speed to fast swimmers like hydras.
• If you cast Summon Forest first, spriggan druids are unable to hijack the berserk trees to their favour.
• If you really need to get rid of the snaplasher vines, you can attack the dryad, which will instantly dispel the dryad (and thus the vines). Note that this will anger the good gods, and that it won't get rid of the trees.

History

• Prior to 0.25, fires could spread to temporary forest, and Tornado could break summoned trees.
• Prior to 0.19, this spell could be used for digging walls: the player could turn a wall into a tree and then burn it.
• Summon Forest was added in 0.14.